




















130. Letters, Announcements, &c. 
a narrow longitudinal dark spot near the upper portion of the 
shaft; and both show a broad terminal bar of blackish brown, 
slight indications of which are also perceptible on some of the 
other rectrices. Those feathers of the upper tail-coverts which 
are nearest the tail are white ; but those nearest the rump are 
black, with very narrow white tips, and also an irregular white 
spot on the inner web of one of them. In other respects the 
markings of this specimen appear to me to agree with those 
of the Joanna-Island examples. 
I may take this opportunity of mentioning that Mr. Edward 
Newton feels quite certain as to the correctness of the dia- 
gnosis by dissection which showed the type specimen of Circus 
macroscelis to be a male (conf. Ibis, 1875, p. 231). 
Whilst on the subject of Harriers I may remark that in 
‘The Ibis’ for 1875, pp. 226-228, I published some notes 
on the various plumages of Circus melanoleucus ; as an ad- 
dition to these, I now give some particulars of a Har- 
rier of that species, obtained in the month of March in 
the Darrany district of Assam by Major H. H. Godwin- 
Austen, and ascertained by that gentleman to. be a female ; 
premising that an ordinary adult male was obtained by the 
same ornithologist in the same month and in the same lo- 
cality, and that I have been indebted to the good offices of 
Lord Walden for the opportunity of examining both these 
specimens. In this female the feathers on the entire upper 
surface of the head are blackish brown, with narrow rufous 
edgings; those of the nape are still darker, and without 
rufous edgings; the entire mantle is of a similar tint, in- 
creasing in intensity as it approaches the tips of the lower 
scapulars, which are almost black. The general hue of the 
mantle is apparently unbroken, except by narrow buff edgings 
to the upper interscapulary feathers; but on lifting up the 
lower scapulars, the feathers which they conceal are found to 
be grey, barred with blackish brown, which is darkest towards 
the tip, and in places mottled with white on the inner web ; 
the feathers on the rump are blackish brown, more or less 
tipped with white; the upper tail-coverts white, with one, or 
at most two, irregular brown spots in each feather ; the tail 






